The amendment, co-sponsored by Hedge-Morrell and Councilwoman Stacy Head, would likely mean that Sgt. Todd Morrell and Officer Nicholas Morrell would be exempted from a new requirement that they be periodically rotated out of their Fair Grounds detail.

The [NOPD consent] decree … requires that officers who work regular details be rotated out at least once a year in order to provide “a fair and equitable number of secondary employment opportunities to all NOPD employees.”

More than $15 million worth of ice purchased for Hurricane Isaac victims in Louisiana was allowed to melt or was given away by the state to private entities, according to a report released by the state office of inspector general on Thursday. The mishandling of the incident means 10-pound bags of ice, originally $2.10 each, ended up costing more than $28 apiece, including transportation costs.

I wondered what $15 million of ice looks like. Fortunately, the article includes a photo of piles of ice in a warehouse.

Instead of taking advantage of an opportunity to expand coverage with federal dollars, Gov. Bobby Jindal has chosen to double down on a broken status quo, promoting the traditional two-tiered system where tax dollars are funneled to a set of state-owned hospitals instead of having those dollars follow the patients through an insurance-based model.

It wasn’t always this way.

As recently as November 2008, the governor was also in favor of expanding coverage.

Less than two months after Mayor Mitch Landrieu celebrated its reopening with a jubilant splash, the pool at the Lyons Center is now closed for the summer, along with all the other outdoor pools in the city.

Closing the pools at the end of July was budgetary decision based on the return to school in August, but residents and some officials say another week or two would have been appropriate.

The Tony Bennett flap | The Education Gadfly Weekly – Reaction and commentary about the fallout from revelations that Tony Bennett, the former head of education in Indiana, intervened to change a state rating for a charter school run by a well-connected GOP donor. Bennett resigned as Florida education commissioner Thursday. Now there are renewed questions about the value of having states issue letter grades to rate schools.

The new lockup includes an independent generating system so that the Sheriff’s Office will not have to evacuate inmates during hurricanes, which has been a source of problems in the past. The 1,438-bed facility will also improve efficiency, Gusman said, since it will let the Sheriff’s Office consolidate operations now spread among a sprawling complex of 11 buildings and tents.

After reading the story, Lens reporter Tyler Bridges tweeted, “Why is Gusman’s atty the one saying the New Orleans prison will open later than planned? Why not the engineer?”

Mark Moseley blogs at Your Right Hand Thief. Until mid 2014, Mark Moseley was The Lens' opinion writer, engagement specialist and coordinator for the Charter Schools Reporting Corps. After Katrina and the Federal Flood he helped create the Rising Tide conference, which grew into an annual social media event dedicated to the future of New Orleans.